Selecting Your Site-wide Privacy Options

When you first signed up for your site, your site was set to the default setting of Search Engines Discouraged. This is to give you time to start creating content and get your site ready for public view. If your site is visible to everyone, it will also be listed on our Sites Directory. Even if it is blocked from search engines, your site will still be available to normal visitors who have the address.

To change your Site Privacy options:

In the Admin Panel, click on Settings > Reading.

Or click on the Search Engines Discouraged link in the Admin bar to go there directly.

You will see the following under Site Visibility. Select the one that best suits your needs.

Privacy Settings

Allow search engines to index this site.If this option is checked, it will allow search engines to crawl your site and make it easier for people to find your content. This option also lists your site in our public “Sites Directory.“ If you do not want to be listed either in the UCI public Sites Directory or the Internet, select “Discourage search engines not to index this site”.Note: It can take 4-6 weeks or more after you change the settings for Google to index your site. You can manually submit your site to possibly speed up the process. OIT has no control over when Google or other search engines index your site.

Discourage search engines from indexing this site. If this option is checked it will block search engines from finding your site. However people will still be able to read your site if they have the address. Note: Neither of these options blocks access to your site – it is up to search engines to honor your request.

If you have made any changes, click Save Changes at the bottom of the page to save your updates.

Note: We have deprecated the Private Site option due to issues we have with our login method. If you have set your site to Private, it will remain so unless you change it. If you have questions or need this feature, contact OIT.

Checking the Current Status of your Privacy Settings

Look in the Admin bar for Search Engines Discouraged orgo to your Dashboard and look in the Right Now box. If you have blocked search engines from finding your blog, you should see “Search Engines Discouraged”.

Privacy Options on Pages and Posts

Even if your website is publicly available, you can make specific Pages and Posts private in one of two ways.

Note: This only affect a Page or Post on an individual basis. If you want to make your entire site public, use the Privacy Settings option above.

Marking Pages and Posts Private

This method will make the Page or Post available to only members of your website with the role of Editor or Administrator.

While editing your Post or Page, click Edit next to Visibility in the Publish box.

Select Private and click OK.

Publish your Page or Post.

Your Page or Post is now Private. This means that only members of your website, with the role of Editor or Administrators, who are logged in will be able to see the content. Anyone else will receive a “Not Found” message.

Password Protect Pages and Posts

You may also password protect Pages and Posts. This will allow non-members of your website access if they know the password.

Anyone who knows the password will be able to see the content.

While editing your Post or Page, click Edit next to Visibility in the Publish box.

Select Password protected and type a password in the box.

Click OK to establish the password setting.

Click Update to Publish your Post or Page.

Your Post or Page will be marked as Protected and require visitors to type in the password.